Joe Maddon's time with the Los Angeles Angels came to an untimely end a few days ago. The long-time manager was fired from the team after they lost twelve straight games. After such a hot start to the season, the team's slump forced something to change within.

That's not to say that Maddon didn't try to pump his team during the entire streak. In fact, he tried his damnedest to try and rally the Angels back into their winning ways. A recent tidbit revealed that Maddon had one final surprise for Mike Trout and co… but they didn't get to see it due to his firing. (via @cjzero)

We've heard of really unique ways coaches/managers try to rile up their team during a slump. Never, though, has anyone ever thought to get a mohawk to get his team fired up. Apparently, Maddon thought that was the only way to snap the Angels out of the funk. Sadly, we will never know if the mohawk strategy is an effective tool for this job.

At the very least, Maddon's firing seems to have changed something within the Angels roster. They eventually broke their losing skid, and have won a couple of games against some tough competition (Red Sox, Mets). Still, they have a lot of ground to cover after that disastrous streak.

As of the time of writing, the Angels currently sit at second place in the AL West behind the Houston Astros. The gap between them, though, is huge: LA is 8.5 games behind the division leaders. They will have to hope that they can regain their past form and either reclaim the top spot in the division… or get a good enough standing for a wild card spot.